The Premier League has its eye on securing an agreement in North America and Central America next that will bring itself a massive step closer to seeing the 39th Game become a reality.
After the Premier League’s historic agreement last week with the Asian Football Federation (AFF) where they agreed to work together at administrative and club-to-club level to forger closer links and share best practices, CONCACAF is next on the Premier League’s list according to a report published this morning by Bloomberg.
“We have a similar dialogue going on with CONCACAF that has not developed at that level but there’s no reason why it won’t happen,” said Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.
According to Bloomberg, Chuck Blazer, CONCACAF’s general secretary, said he was “open to discussion” and would view any proposal in a “positive light.” “We have as wide a diversity as any continent, with some in need of help and some more sophisticated,” Blazer said in a phone interview. “When it comes to offers of help to develop, we are all ears.”
In Asia, exact details of the partnership between the Premier League and AFF have not been released, but it appears that Premier League clubs would partner with other Asian teams to share best practices among an administrative and coaching level.
“We rely on the Asian confederation to steer us in the right direction,” Scudamore said, admitting that it could be a “long process” to establish such tie-ups.
Based on the latest round of developments the Premier League has been making, they’re being smarter this time by getting the buy-in of the different soccer federations around the world. If Scudamore can get CONCACAF to agree a similar deal to the AFF, then the Premiership will have achieved support from the two biggest EPL fanbases outside of Europe.
Even if the Premier League isn’t able to get a 39th Game concept off the ground, it’ll have the buy-in from North America and Asia to forge closer ties and schedule pre-season or mid-season tournaments.
What are your thoughts about the Premier League pursuing discussions with CONCACAF? Click the comments link below and let us know.
I would love to see the game developed within CONCACAF, and if a relationship with the EPL helps that, great. I would love to see a tournament in North America similar to the Hong Kong tournament that Pompey won in 2007. More teams, more cities, etc, would be fine.
I still am adamantly opposed to a 39th game or moving a home match to another country. The clubs should operate within their community.
It's all garbage if you ask me unless it's the 39th game. Anything else is a bad deal for the US
soccer. fan I'm sorry AP, but the HK type tournament is not acceptable. I've seen one too many European clubs come to the States and take my money. The only game that was worth my money was when Real Madrid with David Beckham played Chivas in Chicago a few years back. Pre-season friendlies should have free admission only, I'll only pay for my food.
I'm all in favor of free admission, especially considering I would have to travel as Atlanta is a football wasteland. We don't even support the Silverbacks, who just announced they are taking the year off. No chance of getting an MLS team this time around either. Oh well.